topic Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching? in Inventor Forum

is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

sschulteH6WZ3 — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 18:24:02 GMT

Hi all I am trying to copy a circle using the intersection of construction lines as the target. I do not find any way of making the center point snap to the intersection so I can have the circle in the proper place. It seems strange that Inventor would not have something as fundamental as snapping when in sketch mode. Please do not suggest array as none of the locations are equally spaced.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

JDMather — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 18:46:34 GMT

Normally you would create a new circle at the intersection and then add an Equal (=) constraint.

If you wan to place (copy) instances of geometry - then I recommend creating Sketch Blocks and setting the Insertion Point.

I don't think that in 15+ years of using Inventor that I have ever used the Copy sketch elements.

Edit: If you place the copied circle somewhere on the screen you can then drag and drop the centerpoint on the intersection and it will automatically create the two coincident constraint.

Edit2: For whatever it is worth - I just tested the same behavior in SolidWorks and not only does it not snap to the intersection, when drag and drop it only creates one of the Coincident constraints.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

Mark.Lancaster — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 18:41:59 GMT

@sschulteH6WZ3

Although @JDMather beat me to my reply (same response as his).. I also notice that you're in assembly.. Are you making assembly features or creating a component while in an assembly? Your provided image is not really clear at what state you're in.

Also will these circles be extrusions or holes/cuts?

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

jletcher — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:23:45 GMT

There are but like Autodesk they half baked the feature you can only use snap points to pick starting location not end location.

I have been trying to get fixed from day one.

But they believe a interface change is better then fixing half baked features they gave us years ago.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

mcgyvr — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:32:24 GMT

As stated one simply needs to select the center point and drag it over the intersection..

What are your constraint inference settings?

Having infer constraints on makes this easy..

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

sschulteH6WZ3 — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:41:45 GMT

I don't know, not sure how to get that box up. I am putting a bunch of holes in an assembly. I put a plane on a face then started the sketch on that. once some key features were projected the visibility of all the solids were turned off. I was just trying to save some time by copying circles instead of making a new circle every time at each intersection.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

jletcher — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:52:40 GMT

Don't worry about those settings @mcgyvr is showing they have no effect on what you are trying to do. They are for normal sketching you are trying to copy and those only work at the end of the line not intersections.

There are no snap for you to use, the only way is to place center points at every intersection and if you are going to do that you might as well draw every circle.

But if you are putting holes in using the point center at the intersection is the way to go then use the hole feature rather then extrude.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

SBix26 — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:58:46 GMT

You really, really need to get some training on Inventor, either through tutorials (from Autodesk included with Inventor or other on-line sources) or in a classroom setting. Inventor sketching is not at all like AutoCAD because it's not for the same purpose.

You should not be extruding circles to make holes. You should be placing center points (and constraining them with dimensions and geometric constraints) and using the Hole tool to create holes that include metadata that carries over to the drawing environment. You might also check out the Bolted Connection tool that can place holes and hardware in the assembly environment.

Whatever else you do, get some training, learn to use Inventor properly. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.

Sam B
Inventor Pro 2019.2 | Windows 7 SP1
LinkedIn

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

jletcher — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 20:02:49 GMT

If you want to use @mcgyvr way click on the circle and dimension then copy and paste near intersection then when you are done pasting go back and click the center point of the circle and drag it to the intersection then @mcgyvr way will work, you just can't use the copy feature.

All your options he is showing should be checked from factor settings.

And you can find those settings under "Application Options" then "Sketch tab" Constraint Settings at the top left.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

jletcher — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 20:04:38 GMT

Forgot picture

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

sschulteH6WZ3 — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 20:17:32 GMT

I would love to take some training. Between directing people in the shop how to build or repair what I am working on, generating bid packages for customers, quoting costs, interpreting foreign and old hand prints, sourcing and purchasing materials, talking to customers and vendors along with doing the design work for my projects etc there is scant time in a day.

Any way that does make sense to put in points and then use the hole command. That never occurred to me.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

jamesSS8E4 — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 15:40:20 GMT

No there isn't because Inventor Sucks. I been using Solidworks for 30 years and have just started getting into the worl of Inventor. There are no snaps in sketches. Also when you mirror parts in assemblies they are fully constrained to the relationship of the mother part in respect to the mirror plane. Inventor is ridiculous and I have convinced my company to go back to Solidoworks. It is WAY more user friendly and has so much more support and also cost less in the long run.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

johnsonshiue — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 22:46:19 GMT

Hi James,

With all due respect, I am not sure what you are talking about. Just as SWX, INV 2D Sketch allows users to snap to end points, mid points and add other constraints. What is the particular workflow not available in INV?

Many thanks!

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

Martho_Engineer — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:06:06 GMT

I've been having similar issues, for example:

I place a construction line on a point to a circle and snap it to the center. The circle is constrained on the origin, and will not move, this line however is free to slide around on the perimeter of the circle despite snapping it from apex of circle to middle of circle point on the origin.

I too am a SW user first and just switched to a company that uses Inventor instead. While there are many features that behave similarly, the snapping feature, or lack there of, is very frustrating. I should be able to snap to mid points and be fully constrained using constraint relationships alone and not need dimensioning to fully constrain a simple line snapped to a mid point.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

dan_inv09 — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:48:01 GMT

Are you saying that Solidworks will snap to a quadrant of a circle?

Wow, that must be annoying. I can't imagine anywhere where that would be a good idea.

What happens if I rotate my view, is the line going to slide around with the camera?

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

Martho_Engineer — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 17:55:19 GMT

Yes, SW snaps to circle quadrants and no, it doesn't slide with the camera view. Lines movement is independent from camera movement.

I don't think you are understanding what I'm trying to explain, quadrant snapping is super helpful and something I use frequently to ensure things are centered and/or lined up with other components in an assembly I'm designing. The most recent use of it was yesterday. I had to diameters of different sizes and I wanted a pin from one piece to line up with a pin hole from the bottom piece. I used a construction line to simulate the larger DM and based the measurements off that. I snapped my lines on quadrant of the construction line and then the center of the smaller diameter. In SW, this would have fully constrained the line. In Inventor, I was still able to slide the line on the X-axis. Was I missing a constraint? Perhaps, but this is something SW would have assumed and taken care of without further clicking.

For context, I'm a certified SW user, I just made the switch to Inventor a month ago and have been going through the online training here and there learning the differences between the two programs. There is a very good chance, a SW feature I took for granted working in the background is not present in Inventor and I need to adjust adding that extra click. I find myself dimensioning way more lines than are probably necessary to try and get lines fully constrained, I just assume it's me still learning the nuisances of Inventor.

I find myself on this board quite frequently and seeing SW users with the same complaints as me, while CAD users who started with Inventor have the same complaints who have switched to SW from Inventor. Sibling rivalry I guess.

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

CGBenner — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 19:54:42 GMT

@Martho_Engineer

Hello! Not being familiar with SW at all... can you share a small file with a sketch in it that behaves as you describe? Or even just a screen capture video of the workflow you're using? I just tried to recreate what you described above, but I doubt I'm doing exactly the same workflow. That might really be helpful for understanding what you're describing above, and might actually point us to a way to solve it for you.... or, to agree that it doesn't do what you want. 🙂

Re: is there no object snaps in Inventor sketching?

dan_inv09 — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 20:35:44 GMT

Like @CGBenner says, please attach a file. I'm not really sure what you are doing but it sounds sort of like you are struggling to get Inventor to do things the way you used a sketch in SolidWorks that Inventor might be able to do much more easily in the part or assembly.

A lot of times former SolidWorks users come on here to complain but once they calm down a little and explain what they're trying to accomplish, "SolidWorks could do in 5 clicks what it takes Inventor 10!" becomes, "Oh, no you go here and Click, Click ,Click, done!"